Overseas Vietnamese couple sold everything, brought 3 children back to Vietnam to live

Their motherland greeted them with a torrential downpour of summer 2023. A few minutes later, the sky cleared and the sun shone brightly. This was the first difference on their return journey because this type of weather was completely unheard of in Denmark, where all five family members were born.

"A strange yet exciting feeling arose in all of us," said Mai Nguyen, 28. "The rain awakened memories of my childhood when my mother took me to my maternal grandparents' house in Thu Thiem, and I ran out to the yard with my siblings to bathe. Until now, I'm still not sure if this 'crazy journey' is for my children or for myself."

Mai Nguyen and her husband Michael, 30, both have Vietnamese parents. They met in 2013 and had three children: Mi in 2019, An in 2020 and their youngest son, Bao, in 2022.

The couple is living a comfortable life in the Nordic country, where healthcare and education up to a master’s degree are free. Mai’s children receive 1,000 kroner (about 3.7 million VND) each month until they turn 18. She herself is about to graduate with a master’s degree in human resources management, while Michael has a degree in business and design.

But as the children grow up, the questions about their origins increase. From the first perceptions of the world, little Mi wondered: "Why is my hair black? I want to have blonde hair like my friends." Mai and her husband tried to explain, but knowledge about skin color and ethnicity was still too far away for her.

The mother is more concerned about the lack of connection between her children and their grandparents due to language barriers. She often hears her children say: "I don't understand what grandma is saying. Tell grandma to speak Danish."

The couple tried teaching their children to speak Vietnamese at home. The idea quickly failed because the house immediately "turned into a broken market" and the children shed tears of anger, wondering why their parents were speaking Danish but then switching to another language. They themselves gradually realized that they were not fluent enough in the language, culture and patience to teach their children.

They planned to travel to Vietnam for two months when Mai graduated with her master's degree in June 2023 so that their children could be exposed to Vietnamese. However, the closer they got to their return date, the more they realized that this method was just "seeing flowers on horseback" and would hardly improve the problem.

They sat down together to discuss the pros and cons of returning to Vietnam. Mai and her husband knew they would lose all government benefits, which were essential for a family with three young children. But if they didn’t leave now, they would never be able to leave again.

"Childhood will pass very quickly and it will be difficult to teach them anything. This is the best time for them to understand their roots," Michael said. Having made the decision, they put up for sale the house, car and liquidated all their belongings.

On June 25, 2023, a family of five boarded a flight, embarking on a journey that many considered foolish.

The first two months, they took the children on trips to spend time together, avoiding psychological shock. The whole family went to Nha Trang, Hoi An, and visited villages. Through that, the children got to interact with people, experience food, and adapt to weather and climate conditions.

Although Mai and Michael had returned a few times when they were young and had enough Vietnamese to communicate, life was still really difficult. When looking for schools for their children, the couple was shocked by the tuition fees for international schools. They also could not afford to go to public schools. After Tet 2024, the family found a suitable private school that taught both Vietnamese and English.

The first few days of school, the children cried because no one there spoke the same language. The young parents were impatient, sending their children to school at 9am and picking them up early in the afternoon. Luckily, by the second month, the children had integrated well, and now sometimes they don't want to go home because they enjoy playing with their friends.

The most difficult problem is finding a job. To get a chance to become an official employee of a Danish company in Vietnam, Mai once accepted an internship with a salary of 2 million VND, just enough to pay for the motorbike taxi ride from their apartment in District 2 to the office in District 1. Another time, she was recruited to be a manager for a travel company with a salary of 60 million VND. However, due to paperwork problems, the salary was renegotiated to 8 million VND, without insurance or visa, so she only worked for a month and then quit. "I am still trying to find a job with suitable hours for someone with three young children," said the overseas Vietnamese mother.

Despite all that, the past 14 months in Vietnam have been an exciting adventure for the family. In Denmark, they lived in an apartment with a lawn in the backyard. No apartment complex had four swimming pools like the one they rent for 16 million VND.

"Living in a city of 180,000 people means you have to order everything you want to buy, but in this city of 9 million people there are so many options," Mai said. When she craves a bowl of hot pho, she just has to run to her house, or even send a text message to have it delivered to her door.

They like the vibrant pace of life in Ho Chi Minh City, the very cheap cost of living. They also especially like traveling around Vietnam on a motorbike, instead of having to go everywhere by car like before.

In particular, the cuisine has completely expanded the children's taste buds. Overseas Vietnamese parents have a rule: Children must taste everything before declaring whether they like it or not. Now, the children are familiar with all kinds of food, delicacies, and fruits of all seasons. The eldest daughter loves raw tomatoes and anything served with vermicelli. The second child is crazy about durian. The youngest son likes to eat everything, as long as it is Vietnamese food.

What makes Mai and her husband happiest is that their children's Vietnamese is improving day by day. The two children, 5 and 4 years old, can read from 1 to 100 in Vietnamese and talk to their grandparents. In a recent phone call, the eldest sister excitedly spelled out the words "baby, fish, ball" to the applause of her grandparents.

"After more than a year of exposure to Vietnamese, the children have made great progress, helping my wife and I know that our decision to return home was successful," said Michael.

Micheal said that this journey not only helps the children understand their roots and cultural collisions, but also develops skills, together creating an unforgettable childhood and strengthening family relationships.

On the evening of August 24, the family of five gathered around a birthday cake, singing to celebrate their second daughter’s fourth birthday. In the blink of an eye, An had celebrated two birthdays in Vietnam. When they realized this, Mai and her husband looked at each other and smiled, without needing to say anything.

"We had an agreement before the trip that if either of us missed home or wanted to go back to Denmark, we would go back without explaining the reason," Mai said. "I didn't expect that for the past 14 months we hadn't thought about it once."